Crippled Avengers

1978 "Where the better man stays alive!"
7.3| 1h46m| R| en| More Info
Released: 21 December 1978 Released
Producted By: Shaw Brothers
Country: Hong Kong
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

A group of martial artists seek revenge after being crippled by Tu Tin-To, a martial arts master, and his son.

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Reviews

UnowPriceless hyped garbage
Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.
Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
calvinnme ... as it is sometimes called "The Return of the Five Deadly Venoms", this is vintage Shaw Brothers kung fu at it's finest.Three men show up at a man's house to kill him, only he's not home, so they decide to chop off his wife's legs and hack off his small son's hands. Just then, the father returns home and calmly slaughters the three killers. Unfortunately, his wife perishes from her wounds, but the son survives, and the father sees to it that he is fitted with fully articulated metal hands. After training into adulthood, the son uses his metal-handed kung fu prowess to cripple the grown children of his mother's killers. And all this just in the first fifteen minutes! All of this training and revenge has left the father and son mean and violent. When a traveler makes an impolite comment, they blind him. When the local blacksmith dares speak out, they render him deaf and mute. When a passerby offers help, they chop off his feet! And finally, when a wandering hero promises to avenge these crimes, they defeat him, put his head in a vice, and give him brain damage! The four victims of the original victims band together and travel to a wise old kung fu master who trains them to overcome their handicaps and become The Crippled Avengers! Exciting, colorful and ludicrous in equal measure, this film actually manages to outdo it's more famous predecessor. Highly recommended to fans of the genre and bizarre-cinema buffs. This genre is definitely not up my film alley, but this one I enjoyed.
andressolf The first 1/3 of this movie I would dare say is genius. It's a really smart and great movie. The rest of the movie (that is to say the last 2/3rds of it) is pretty stupid...Let me be brief, since this is all opinion anyway. I would rate the first 1/3 of this movie a 9 out of 10- easily. It was fun and entertaining to watch and intriguing. Even the following parts (after the martial arts training the avengers get) is SOMEWHAT interesting, but the film for me all falls apart definitely in the 2nd half of the film because it seems like the movie loses purpose and it's pointless violence and has corny fight scenes and corny bad guys to make matters worse. I mean really now. The 2nd half of the movie is nearly ALL action and reliant on action and not so much story telling and the action is not all that good! The action is not at all real kung-fu, instead it is circus acts and it is absolutely ridiculous to watch. At least some kung-fu movies (like Jackie Chan movies and The Prodigal Son to give you an idea) make their ridiculous fight scenes funny or fun to watch, but these fight scenes are long and grueling to watch because they seem SO choreographed and staged. It does not seem authentic. Some of the stunt work is sloppy, and just seems like it's done by poor performers. Overall I am not pleased by the 2nd half of this movie but I enjoyed the first half for the concept and storytelling so much that I would like to see this movie remade some day and done properly. That is to say- with a story that stays intact and that does not simply disappear for poor fight scenes that follow the characters main quest. It seems like this movie is very much 'hit it and quit it' in the 2nd half. In and out, and yet for such a simple idea/concept it is lost in how long they drawn the movie's fight scenes to do it. So in the end it is a waste of time it feels like cause it builds up to a rather lame 'climax' if you can even call it that. *** spoiler alert *** Also we never see them bury one of their fallen or how they live their lives after the battle, or how the city is changed for the better afterward. It's really a rushed ending and 'hit it and quit it' like I said it is, but takes so long to get to? Doesn't make sense. They could have used that last half hour of precious movie time to explain what happens after the battle, and they could have gotten to the battles sooner and made them shorter and sweeter. But ah well. It is what it is. A very mixed movie, and a waste of time in the end if you ask me. But first 1/3 is worth watching if you plan to write your own remake of this story which I think is worth telling- just differently.
Filmfandave What makes this one of the best Venoms movies is the characters of the accidental heroes, who all happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, swearing vengeance against a rich and infamous kungfu grandmaster (played sinisterly by Shaw Bros veteran actor Chen Kuan Tai) and his merciless son (Lu Feng).Kungfu flicks of this era rarely portray handicapped as heroes. So the decision to make them heroes was a breakthrough for kungfu movie lovers.Four laymen: Kwo Chue, a toy hawker, as the blind; Lo Meng, an iron smith, as the deaf and mute; Sun Chien, as the legless; and Chiang Sen, a swordsman, as the retarded become comrades by chance after being brutally maimed by the evil kungfu grandmaster and his son.Seeking for revenge, the four go on some very arduous martial arts training specializing in unique kungfu skills with the help of Chiang Sen's kungfu master. The four then join forces to settle the score with the evil lord and his iron-handed son in a hand-to-hand mortal combat that only the wittiest, not the strongest, survive.This particular Venoms' vehicle is one that helped maintain their fame in the early 80s following their groundbreaking box office hit "THE FIVE VENOMS" (1978). For lovers of old school kungfu flicks, this is one they must not miss !
jbparker Some of the greatest stunts and combat scenes ever done. Yes, dialogue is cheesy. You do not watch these movies for dialogue. Notice how long the camera stays in one place during an extended fight scene. Yeah, that usually means that what you just saw is one take (since, when this movie does edit, its usually fairly obvious). If you like this type of movie, watch it. If not, stay far, far away.